Boxing hall-of-famer, Evander Holyfield has had his say on the recent comparisons between himself and Oleksandr Usyk.
‘The Real Deal’ was the first boxer to claim undisputed titles in the cruiserweight and heavyweight division during the three-belt era.
When comparing Usyk’s achievements to his own in an interview with FightHype, Holyfield said:
“We were born in two different eras, you see all the people who have fought in my era had 15 round fights.”
His reference is to 15 round fights which took place for all of his championship cruiserweight fights before the governing bodies changed to 12 round fights in the 1980’s.
The Olympic bronze medallist went on to talk about the pedigree of opponents the two had to face:
“If you have better fighters in the era, it will be a little different.
We had one of the greatest eras. We had one of the strongest eras out there in boxing history.”
The American still holds the record as the only boxer in history to be undisputed champion in two weight classes, something Usyk can replicate if he were to get his hands on Tyson Fury’s WBC heavyweight title next.
Holyfield previously stated that the Ukrainian would have been a “difficult” matchup for him, as he preferred to face more aggressive fighters.
Usyk has returned back to Ukraine following his second successive win over Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia on August 20. While we are all waiting for his next move, the much-anticipated undisputed heavyweight fight against Tyson Fury is expected next.
Usyk and Holyfield were both undefeated in their quest to undisputed cruiserweight gold and both stepped up in weight to heavyweight and dominated in explosive fashion. We can only imagine what a tantalising clash between the two cruiserweight greats would have been.